Lemon Sour Cream Cake is a very easy cake recipe to make for dessert tonight!
This sweet and simple lemon cake recipe is made in a 9×13-inch pan. It’s the perfect dessert recipe to make if you’re looking for a sweet treat to share with your family. It’s a homemade cake (no box mix involved), but it’s not difficult to make and it does not call for any hard-to-find ingredients.
This recipe comes from my favorite cake baking book of all time: Piece of Cake by Camilla Saulsbury. I have made so many cakes from this cookbook, and I continue to reach for it again and again every time I want to try baking a new cake! I suggest you add the book to your cookbook collection. It’s a good one!
How to make Lemon Sour Cream Cake:
For the complete recipe, be sure to scroll to the end of this post and print out the recipe. All ingredients and full instructions will be on the printable recipe.
In a large bowl, you’ll combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda). Then you’ll use your electric mixer to mix in eggs, sour cream, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. That’s all you do to make the cake batter. The batter is spread into a 9×13-inch pan and baked for about 40 minutes.
Icing for Lemon Sour Cream Cake:
After letting your cake cool off, you’ll make the lemon icing. It’s a mix of powdered sugar, sour cream, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. And then it’s poured onto the cake and spread to cover the top.
How to find a good lemon:
The best way to find a good lemon is to pick it up and hold it in your hand. If the lemon has a little “give” to it when you squeeze it (and isn’t rock hard), it will be easier to peel (a thinner skin) and it will yield more juice.
Things to order from Amazon to help you make this cake:
- ZESTER: This is the one I have, and it’s perfect for zesting and for fine-grating Parmesan cheese, ginger, garlic, nutmeg and chocolate.
- hand JUICER: This is a super handy tool for juicing lemons by hand.
- 9×13-inch pan: I like this one because it has a lid, which makes it easy to store!
This Lemon Sour Cream Cake is a nice dessert to keep around for snacking, but it’s also a pretty dessert to serve for Easter or Mother’s Day or another special occasion day. Keep leftovers stored in the refrigerator, since there is sour cream in the icing. Enjoy!
Here are a few more lemon dessert recipes you might like to try:
- Lemon Brownies
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Best Lemon Bars
- Lemon Sour Cream Pie
- Oatmeal Lemon Cream Bars
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Italian Lemon Cookies
- Cream Cheese Lemon Bars
Lemon Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients
CAKE:
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
LEMON SOUR CREAM ICING:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
MAKE THE CAKE:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13x9-inch pan with nonstick baking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
- Use an electric mixer to mix in the eggs, sour cream, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. On low speed, beat for 1 minute, until blended. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
PREPARE THE ICING:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, sour cream, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice until blended and smooth. Spread the icing over the top of the cooled cake.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was sooo good, made it for work, loved it, cake is a little dense, but delicious and not sweet , the glaze was perfect. Will make again.
I am a total klutz at baking, even with box cakes. I tried this for Easter weekend and it was EASY and delicious. Granddaughter approved. Thank you!
This looks like an easy recipe to halve, which I’d like to do since it’s only me. What size pan would I use? Thank you! Looks so good!
Made this tonight and love how it turned out … delicious, moist and fluffy. I was a bit skeptical because of the few bad reviews. So I’m delighted to find a ‘to keep’ recipe! I made a few modifications though: 1c of sugar instead of 2 as I don’t like things too sweet. Added 1c of frozen blueberries. I was short 1/6c of sour cream but I guess that didn’t affect the final result. But I think the major thing I did differently was that I baked mine only for 33 mins, not 40. I think maybe the bad reviews are because of the extra time. Anyways, thanks for a lovely and delicious recipe!
Cake perfect made in a Bundt… but the frosting, way to thin….
This is my favorite go-to cake recipe and one my parents request I bake every three months.
I tweak the base recipe, always adding one full 16 ounce container of sour cream and sometimes stirring blueberries into the batter. I never serve with frosting, but often with a side of plain Greek yogurt topped with a drizzle of honey and a few fresh unsweetened strawberries. My results are always a perfectly dense, yet fluffy cake (well, I make cupcakes), with a firm yet tender crumb, that melts in the mouth.
please whatever you do do not make this recipe!!! The proportions are completely wrong, especially the powdered sugar ratio for the icing. Also the amount of lemon juice and zest is surprisingly low. The cake was a flavorless disaster with tons of runny icing. There are much better recipes out there for a lemon cake, this will turn out to be a dense, huge lemon brick.
I’m not sure what happened– the recipe comes directly from a baking cookbook by a very experienced cookbook author. Mine turns out exactly like it shows in the video…
My frosting was perfect for this cake. The cake itself was dense and the lemon flavor really lacking, I think the amount of lemon zest could be doubled. It is dryer then expected.even though the center wasn’t cooked the outside got dark and dry. Maybe the temp needs to be dropped lower for this length of cooking time..Lemon frosting had a good lemon flavor.
I have attempted to make this cake twice. The first time I opened oven while baking and the cake sunk. I thought it was because I opened the door. Just made it again;didn’t open door and it still sunk. What did I do wrong
I’m not sure!!
The cake was dry and dense. I followed the recipe exactly. We through it out after being embarrased when we served it for company. I read on line afterwards about creaming the sugar and butter to make a cake fluffy. The recipe did not say to do that and I guess I should have known that. I was really disappointed in this. However, the frosting was good.
I made this though I and the only thing I changed was I beat the sugar with the eggs. Love it I put a cream cheese frosting and lemon curd drops on top. Family loves it. Oh and I cooked it for 30minutes as I love in higher altitude.